Skirts, shirts and stillettos

If you are pretty much stuck at home applying for jobs, every day out is extraordinary. Especially if during that day you are surrounded by lots of other people you do not know. The advantage of that is of course that you have the chance to make brand new friends. However, it is questionable to what extent that is desirable during a careers fair. After all, all these other people are potential competition.

Bitchy as I am, I decided to focus on the competition aspect. Which is probably why I ended up with a new acquaintance, but that is of no consequence here. Gatherings of a great number of people are an excellent occasion to observe people and their choice of clothing. Career fairs are particularly interesting as 75% of people there have made an attempt to be representable. Some succeed. Some do not.

Before I continue to share my views on other people's clothing at this fair, I should mention that Dutchland is quite interesting when it comes to dressmaking. Although I have been told that Dutch designers exist, I dare say this is not apparent when one walks around the town on an average Saturday afternoon. I will explain why.

Somehow I have the impression Dutch women (I'm more confident bitching about womens' outfits rather than mens) have a preference for a kneelong skirt and knee-high boots. Flat boots. Among the attendants of the careers fair it was no different. Skirts and knee-high boots. But fellow-ladies. If you have short legs: stay away from the boots. Stay away from flat too. If your calves are the size of a standard vase, and you insist on the skirt, please don't opt for the boots as well.

Sat on a bench to eat some lunch I was wondering: "Where are the stillettos?". And before some of you start screaming that you don't know how to work those, as Lady Catherine DeBurgh in Pride and Prejudice says: "Proficiency comes from practice." Go crazy. By a pair. Just do it. Put them on and wobble your way through your living room. Round the table round and round. Don't look down. Head up, don't look down! Straight ahead, keep going, small steps, after all, we're elegant and feminine here. Just keep practising and then one day, you take them out for a walk. A dinner is a good start - you can sit down most of the time.

From Stillettos-for-Dummies to skirts. From my bench, I noticed something else was missing too. A nice pair of trousers. Although I have no idea about bigger sizes, but trousers generally are a better option than a skirt if slim is not applicable. Why do these girls size 42 insist on the skirt that's too long to be...well anything really. It's too long to be sexy, too big to be elegant, too thick to be beautiful. Throw it away. Get rid of it. And get rid of that short jeans skirt too that looks as if it consists of two rectangular pieces of jeans-fabric sewn together. Buy a nice pair of trousers. Long and black. Deep black. Not the cheap kind that starts shining after a while, but deep black. With the heels, that'd be so much more elegant and presentable than the skirt with the flat boots.

My happy moment at the careers fair obviously arrived when I finally spotted a girl with a nice pair of trousers. Thin stripe, black, elegant. With a black gilet. Very nice. Except for the vaguish green vest or T-shirt peeking out underneath her turquoise top. Shame. I thought the same when seeing the girl with the black trousers and black jacket. It looked allright in shadow. However, enter sunlight. The trousers and the jacket both did their best showing their individuality in different shades of black. Too bad. But then, just as I was recovering from this latest disappointment, a woman came in to whom the lable elegant could be applied. Short skirt, thin black stockings and pumps. Yes, elegant could be used here. Daring? Definately not. The skirt turned out to be married to a similarly striped jacket, which made the whole creation a classic example of the Receptionist or Air-hostess-style. Coming to think of it, skirt was a tiny bit too short too, but then, I was completely carried away by the absence of boots. Unfortunately this woman cannot be counted though, as she later turned out to be a lot older and there for her work.

Disillusioned with the girls my age and their ideas of style, I turned my attention to the gentlemen instead. Perhaps they'd do better. Now, apart from being overly-critical about girls, I don't think men and women can be compared when it comes to clothing. For men it is so easy. Just stick to a basic set of rules, and you'll get there. Ok, actually, what can go wrong? Well, a grey suit with brown shoes for example. A badly cut suit. Please spend money. It doesn't need to be Armani, but honestly, 100€ for a suit is not a good deal. O and the semi-smart trousers. You know, the ones which make your but look big. Awful. It's the male equivalent of the knee-long winter skirt: disastrous. It's not sexy, not beautiful and completely unfashionable. Get rid of them and buy something good instead. Like really smart trousers with straight legs. No, taken into account that for guys it's easier to be stylish as they have less options, I remained disappointed with people's efforts.